Now that my online presence has grown tremendously over the last few years, I keep getting reminded of the existence of those foreign accent related myths on a regular basis so I decided to share the most popular ones with you!

It goes without saying, of course, that I’m also going to debunk those myths based on my own experience dealing with other foreign English speakers for a good number of years.

Myth #1: Native English Accent Can Just Be “Picked Up”!

Haven’t you heard the following notion:

“Did he/she move to England/the States? Surely he/she will pick up the local accent and speak like a true Englishman/American in no time at all!”

Here’s a typical example – a woman tells how she picked up the British accent after spending some time in England and she continued to speak with it even after returning back home to the US. Then she goes on to explain that one of the ways her British accent was manifesting itself was through using the word “fancy” as a verb…

What she clearly means is that she was using local British vocabulary and expressions – not the accent!

But it’s just one example out of countless other instances when I’ve noticed people confusing accent with local slang – and by the way, it’s done by English teaching industry professionals as well as the average person out there!

Myth #3: Foreign Accent is a Sure Sign of Lack of English Fluency!

It’s only natural that people often will judge you by their first impression of you, and if you happen to be a foreigner speaking with a bigger or smaller foreign accent, your English skills will be deemed to be very basic and you might even get quite a condescending treatment.

The reason for the aforementioned phenomenon is the following.

Just because beginner English students normally speak with quite hard foreign accents, people generally tend to assume that once those students progress through their studies and attain a certain degree of fluency, their accent is going to be eradicated.

This notion is most likely based on a few observations of fluent foreign English speakers who are capable of speaking without any foreign accent at all, and then the following conclusion is drawn: “A fluent English speaker speaks with an almost native-like pronunciation”.

In real life, more often than not, fluency isn’t really so closely tied with perfect pronunciation.

I’ve met plenty of fluent foreigners speaking with hard accents, and I’ve met some folks whose pronunciation was very good yet they had quite a limited ability to verbalize their thoughts in English!

Everyone – and I mean EVERYONE will tell you that only little children are capable of picking up accents naturally and that adults just don’t stand a chance.

“I’m too old to learn, I’m happy enough to be able to say simple things in English, I just couldn’t possibly hack the accent…”

“Me? And speak with a native-like accent? Common, I’m not seven or eight anymore! Children are good at that sort of thing, I’m too old for it!”

Such and similar nonsensical excuses will always be used to justify people’s unwillingness to embrace such relatively simple new things as new sounds and new ways of pronouncing English words.

In reality, on 90% of occasions it’s all down to the person’s stubbornness; they’re simply not willing to step out of their comfort zone and force themselves to do what’s a little bit embarrassing.

And don’t forget the strongest excuse of them all – “So the person X learned to speak like an American/Brit at the age of 34? Well, he must be extremely gifted; I bet he has a perfect ear for accents!”

This is the biggest pile of rubbish I’ve ever heard. There’s no such a thing as a perfect ear for accents; it’s all down to hard work. Either you want to do it, or you don’t – but don’t blame your lack of “accent skills”, it’s just ridiculous.

Myth #5: Only the Native Speakers’ Accents – American, British, Irish, Australian and so on – Are “Proper” English Accents

Well, you’d better take some accent reduction classes, you should work on your pronunciation, my friend!

This is just not fair.

I don’t see any reason why any foreign accent couldn’t be treated with the same respect as any native English accent.

I strongly believe that the English language has long surpassed its native boundaries, and nowadays nations like Chinese or Mexicans are perfectly fine speaking with their own accents and taking pride in that fact!

By the way, did you know that the second, third and the fourth largest English speaking populations are shared among India, Pakistan and Nigeria? All these countries are ahead of the UK and Canada and they have a huge number of people speaking English as their first language residing within them!

Now, would you still claim that to speak with a Nigerian accent, for example, is somehow “less native-like” than to speak with an American accent?

Thanks for reading my friends,

Chat soon,

Robby 😉

Comments on this entry are closed.

flamestar

I was born and raised in American and my people have been here for several generations. I was looking up a references on phonemes. The guy definitely does not have an American accent but I had no problem understanding him. Most of the time I could not tell where he came from. Sometimes he sounded English or Irish and others he sounded very Eastern European. He is kind of nasal which is true of us Americans. Here is the point. If you are going to have a good job in the United States you should be able to speak Standard American English. This guy would have no problem working at a Fortune 500 company.

Layla Sinha

I enjoyed your articles and and learned at-least two things about myth 4 & 5.

So, you’re saying you even signed up for those classes – could you let us know if there’s been any results? Has your speech improved as a consequence of doing those Skype sessions?

Chat soon,

Robby

Cintia

Excellent article!
One thing, I would be happy to know where you got those references from (the ones in yellow). They’d be of great use for my research.

accentrobby

Hi Cintia,

They’re all my personal observations! 😉

Regards,

Robby

Renie

Hi, I just want to say that this is a very well-written article! I like the part which you mention one of the myths is that only the Native Speakers’ Accents – American, British, Irish, Australian and so on – Are “Proper” English Accents. I agree! There’s no such thing as a “Proper” English Accent. Different people from different countries have their own accent and this is what makes them unique. Cheers from Singapore! Btw I love reading your blog. It’s interesting

accentrobby

Thanks for the comment Renie, and I couldn’t agree with you more on any English accent being unique and proper – since English has become the world’s language, I don’t think anyone can claim it to be 100% belonging to a particular group of people.

English is for everyone to enjoy, use, learn and improve, and I hope you’ll stick around my blog for the years to come because I’ll keep posting plenty of cool and interesting stuff for you guys!

Regards,

Robby

Philip

Thanks a lot for the article!

I’m particularly glad you finally disproved the old myth that traces of a foreign accent can’t be eradicated. From my own experience I’ve reached the same conclusion. For example English was a language I learned when I was about 10 (which according to the myth is after your accent window has been closed), but through determination and above all a good ear for accents I’ve managed to get rid of my native accent in favour of the RP English when speaking English, this in a country with an accent which is very “singing” and non-English to say the least. However I disagree with you on the point that there is no such thing as a good ear for accents. I think most people are able to learn a foreign accent with some determination, but the time it takes differs and some people are able to adopt a different accent by spending some time at a different place.

There is one thing that has puzzled me a lot though. It has to do with accent acquisition. I’m able to speak with i.e. a Scottish, Irish or Australian accent, but when I try to do the American one it just seems impossible even though it is the one we are most exposed to. When I try to do it I just sound “Mid-Atlantic” or Irish. Do you have any tip?

accentrobby

Hi Philip,

Have you tried the method of speaking with a mouthful of water to sound more American?